BUCO ENGINEER BOOTS / BUTTOCK

The BUCO ENGINEER BOOTS / BUTTOCK reproduce an original pair released under the BUCO label, faithfully recreating its construction details including the separate sole and the crimped upper. The boots are constructed from aniline-finished buttock leather, a rare hide sourced from the hindquarter of the horse. Material of sufficient density and structural integrity to meet the demands of boot construction is rarer still. One of the defining characteristics of this boot is the impression left by the crimping process, a forming operation used to shape and set the upper. In modern production this mark is typically absent, but this boot reproduces the earlier method using custom tools to replicate the forming marks characteristic of period production.

The engineer boot emerged in the United States during the 1930s, developed for the firemen who stoked coal into steam locomotives - the high shaft protecting the lower leg from hot embers, coal debris, and the sharp edge of a shovel, while the laceless construction allowed for rapid removal in an emergency. Purpose-built for hazardous industrial environments, the design spread beyond the railroads to welders, truck drivers, and heavy laborers, with major catalog retailers carrying their own versions by the early 1940s and broadening access across the working population.

During the Second World War, manufacturers shifted production to lace-up military footwear however resurgence came in the late 1940s, driven by returning veterans and the rapid growth of motorcycle culture. The laceless design was well suited to riding: it posed no interference with drive belts, the tall shaft insulated the leg from exhaust heat, and the construction offered considerable protection in a fall. When Marlon Brando wore engineer boots in The Wild One (1953) and James Dean appeared in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the boot's association with rebellion and outsider identity was fixed in the popular imagination.

• Horsehide, Vegetable Tanned, Pigment Finished
• Brass Buckles, Nickle Finished
• Copper Boot Shank
• Made in Japan